NJEA president meets Gov. Christie face-to-face about controversial memoNJEA President Barbara Keshishian leaves the Governor's Office at the Statehouse. Christie and Keshishian, head of the 200,000-member New Jersey Education Association, met for about 15 minutes in the governor's office, where he accepted her apology for the memo sent by union officials in Bergen County last week that hinted the governor's death. (Video by Tony Kurdzuk / The Star-Ledger)

TRENTON -- The first face-to-face meeting between Gov. Chris Christie and the president of the state’s powerful teachers’ union ended in acrimony today, despite the union’s apology for a controversial memo alluding to the governor’s death.

The standoff between Christie and Barbara Keshishian, head of the 200,000-member New Jersey Education Association, came hours after the governor urged voters to reject local school budgets in districts where teachers have not agreed to a one-year wage freeze — the majority of districts statewide.

"I just don’t see how citizens should want to support a budget where their teachers have not wanted to be part of the shared sacrifice," said Christie, whose proposed $820 million cut in school aid has districts planning layoffs and program cuts.

Local school budgets are up for a vote a week from Tuesday. Of the state’s almost 600 districts, 141 have implemented a wage freeze or pay cut of some sort — but only 20 of those involve teachers, according to the governor’s office.

But neither the wage freeze nor the budget cuts were up for discussion in the governor’s office, where Christie hosted Keshishian for about 15 minutes.

The Republican governor accepted her apology for the memo sent by union officials in Bergen County last week, Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said. But Keshishian would not agree to force out Joe Coppola, president of the Bergen County Education Association who signed the memo, which effectively ended the meeting, Drewniak said.

"What would happen to a student in any of these schools ... if they had sent out an e-mail like that? In all likelihood, that student would be suspended, maybe expelled, subject to court action," Drewniak said. "If the NJEA can’t as an organization accept that this was egregious conduct and take disciplinary action, I don’t know how we could move forward without that happening."

Keshishian’s exit from the governor’s office led to a bit of political theater as reporters trailed her to the NJEA headquarters down the block. She declined to discuss the meeting, first saying she and Christie talked about "the weather" and then calling it "just an initial meeting with the governor."

Asked whether Coppola would quit, she said, "I have no idea." Later, NJEA spokesman Steve Baker said she does not intend to ask for the resignation of Coppola, who "made a sincere apology."

The memo detailed a series of actions to protest the aid cuts and ended with a "prayer" for Christie’s death. Local union officials said it was in bad taste but meant as a joke. Keshishian would not comment on the memo or apology but said Christie’s call to reject school budgets is "very unfortunate."

"I guess that just says a lot about what the governor thinks about public education," Keshishian said. "We have a great public school system here in New Jersey, and in order to maintain that, they’ll have to pass their school budgets."

That was echoed by Richard Bozza, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators. "Encouraging people to vote budgets down at a time when such deep cuts in programs are going to occur...is very sad," he said.

Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerNJEA President Barbara Keshishian is led into in the Governor's Office at the Statehouse this afternoon to meet with Gov. Chris Christie concerning the memo circulated by a union member last week that alluded to wishing the governor would die.